Ten Years Later
by YinSteve
Summary: It's ten years after Hibiki left Seitow. What's going to happen to him? Chap. 5 is finally up, w00tness! Please R&R!
1. Chapter 1

_Italics are thoughts._

I will dedicate all my stories and/or poems to someone. True, it's corny, but I think it's appropriate. This story is dedicated to my Aunt Sis, who's always made me smile.

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Ten Years Later

a story by Steve Sullivan

A tall man with long, blue hair tied back in a ponytail stepped outside the train. Bright sunlight bombarded his sight, blinding him for a moment as he took in the smell that he'd come to know so many years ago. _Has it really been ten years?_ Amawa Hibiki thought quizzically to himself. 

A lot had happened to Amawa during that period of time. He felt that he finally knew what he wanted to do and, more importantly, who he was. It had taken him two school transfers, but they had shown him parts of himself more clearly than ever before. Especially Furikan in Nerima, now there was a place that one can not soon forget. He smiled to himself as he thought back over all the times back in Nerima that had taught him something. _I'm here now though, Seitow is the only place for me to teach, and teach right. _Hibiki quickened his pace, there was an old friend he needed to meet, and she didn't like to be kept waiting…

An old woman with a kerchief around her head sat in the dining room of Gochiso. He was late, but she could make an exception for him, unlike some people she knew. "Ohayo gozaimasu, Ba-chan!" a voice called from outside the inn.

_Hmmm, not bad. He's only five minutes late. Not bad all things considered,_ the old woman thought to herself. "Well don't just stand there you baka, come in!"

"Fine, Ba-chan, I will, I will," Hibiki said apologetically. Appeasing Ruru was never easy and extremely important when dealing with her. "So, what's been going on Ba-chan? Anything I miss that wasn't in your letters?"

"Not much. I assume you're here for the vacant physical education kyoshi position at Seitow, correct?" Hibiki nodded. "Well the old hag has changed her ways, somewhat," she added the last part in a rather exasperated tone. "I did tell you the she fired the vice-principal a few years ago, right?"

"How could I forget! That was probably one of the happiest days of my life. You never did tell me who she replaced her with though…" Hibiki's voice faded a bit as he pondered who it could be.

"You'll find out soon enough. So, how are you planning to go the job this time, eh? Same as last time?" she snickered; knowing the answer before it came.

"Of course not!" Hibiki said, feeling a bit agitated. "Why would I ever become **her** again when I can be myself. Unless…" Hibiki's face became downtrodden as he spoke again, "they've still haven't gotten rid of that old policy…"

Ruru smiled. "No, don't be an idiot. The director made sure that policy died a long time ago." Hibiki relaxed a bit. "I meant just barging in there, expecting a job like you did the first time."

"Ah. No, appointments are the way to go that's for sure. That's something that I picked up over the years: never barge in, it creates a bad impression."

"Good, 'cause you have an appointment with the principal and vice-principal today at three."

"What?!" Hibiki nearly shot through the roof, "Why so soon?"

"So you can pay all the back-rent you owe me, of course," Ruru replied casually.

"Isn't there anything else you ever think about Ba-chan?"

"Of course not! The rent is the only thing that keeps an old woman like me going you know!" a playful gleem in her eye as she said this.

Hibiki laughed, knowing what this old woman was really capable of. "So," Hibiki decided for a change in subject, "how's Kuzuha? You never mentioned her in your letters."

Ruru contemplated for a moment. "Now that you mention Kuzuha there is that one thing you ought to know…"

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Well, that's my first fanfic story (at least the first chapter), I hoped you liked it! Please R&R!  



	2. Chapter 2

Sorry about not updating for awhile, i tend to get writer's block easily. Anyway, thanks for the reviews and i hope that this chap. lives up to your expectations...

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Chapter 2

A woman with short, brown hair with a thin pink strip of cloth wrapped around the back of her head sat at her desk in the Seitow staff room. She sat there, reading her roll book for the umpteenth time in the past twenty minutes. She felt as if she knew them already, even though she'd only read their names and seen their faces due to their pictures next to them on the role. School started on Monday, only two days from now, with all the grades changing for the next school year. She couldn't wait to meet her first students; it was all to exciting for her. 

As said before, she'd already read her role book a thousand times, and she had already planned out the entire weeks lesson plan. She was bored, but she couldn't go home yet, it was only eleven o' clock after all. She sighed. She leaned back on her rolling chair in front of her computer and yawned. Perhaps she'd have a quick nap before going out to lunch somewhere in town. _Maybe I'll go to that new Italian place that's just opened, oh, what's it called…_

"Sumimasen," a polite female voice called from the open doorway behind her, "could you please tell me where the music room is? I seem to have forgotten where it is."

"Hai," our teacher replied as she turned around, "it's…" she paused as she finally got a good look at who was talking to her.

The woman in question had long, jet black hair that would have probably reached all the way down to her thighs, had it not been in a tight bun at the base of her skull. She wore half-moon spectacles that accentuated her deep, black eyes perfectly. She was also wearing a white, sleeveless, button blouse with a long, navy blue skirt. "Seiko-chan?" our teacher breathed, barely audible, even to herself.

"Sumimasen? How do you know my name?" The woman asked as she herself looked at our teacher in confusion. That is, until she noticed the cloth wrapped around her head. "Fuko-chan?" she inquired tentatively, praying that it was her old school friend, Kuzuha Fuko. Our teacher nodded.

Silence pervaded the room for a few seconds. Suddenly, the two women ran towards each other and embraced like the old friends they indeed were. Fuko spoke first. "Wow Seiko-chan, you've really changed. I almost didn't recognize you with your hair all in a bun and those glassed you're wearing."

"Well, look at you Fuko-chan. You're taller than I remember and you don't have that curl in your hair anymore. I doubt I would have recognized you if it wasn't for that cloth you always wear around your head," Kasuganomichi Seiko replied.

The two women finished their embrace and decided to sit down for a bit. As it turned out, Seiko was the new music kyoshi at Seitow and had just arrived from the principal's office where she had gotten her homeroom roll. "I've always liked music, I simply decided to act upon it now," Kasuganomichi explained. "But what about you? What are you doing here? Teaching, obviously, but what subject?"

"Hai, I'm the new Biology kyoshi here," Fuko's stomach began to growl after saying this, "Perhaps we could discuss what happened after high school over lunch? I'm kind of hungry at the moment…"

Amawa sat in his old room at Gochiso, mulling over all that Ba-chan had gone over with him earlier that morning. One of these things was the death of one of the original tenants, Kuji Tofu. He had died a week earlier, just before rent was due apparently. While Hibiki never truly understood what was going on in the old man's head, he was still saddened at the death. He had always considered Tofu a friend.

Koji Mori, another tenant of the house, and the only other one Hibiki knew about at the moment, had indeed gotten himself another job, this time at another newspaper. Ever sense Tofu died, however, he'd stay out drinking all night and came home around midnight according to Ba-chan. Tofu was Mori's best friend before he died after all.

A growl suddenly erupted from the pit of Hibiki's stomach and jolted Hibiki back from the recesses of his mind. _Hmmm…I am rather hungry, and it is nearing lunchtime. Maybe I'll go to that new Italian place Ba-chan told me about…

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_Sorry for the relatively short chapters...My mind tends to think it spurts...


	3. Chapter 3

Sorry it took so long to get Chap. 3 up, but here it is! Hope you enjoy it!

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Chapter 3 

Lunch passed by without incident for Kuzuha and Kasuganomichi. The new Italian restaurant, Mario's Eatery, was significantly Western in its style and lunch options, but the food was good. As they were leaving, Fuko noticed a familiar red shirt with green trim in the main dining area, but Seiko was anxious to leave and catch up with her old friend, so she couldn't really investigate into the matter any further. The two women spent the rest of the afternoon out on the town, shopping and playing catch-up with each other's lives…

Amawa Hibiki had had a very good lunch at Mario's. He was pleasantly full and decided to take a walk before his meeting with the Principal in a few hours.

Hibiki began to walk aimlessly throughout the district, remembering all the craziness his life used to attract. His first teaching job at Seitow, having to cross-dress in order to merely keep his job. The teacher-student relationship between him and Fuko. Being exposed by that old witch of a vice-principal like that. _And that's just the tip of the iceberg_, Hibiki thought to himself as he rounded a corner and ended back up at Gochiso.

Before he knew it, it was two o'clock. _Time to win myself a job_, Amawa thought to himself…

Sannomiya Cheiko, the third principal of Seitow Sannomiya Private School, began to grow anxious. She was waiting for two people, her new vice-principal and Amawa Hibiki. _Why does the director put me in these positions? It was bad enough with that new vice-principal he's assigned me, but to make me reconsider Amawa for employment…_

"Madame Principal," a voice over her private intercom snapped Cheiko back to reality, "a Mr. Amawa Hibiki is here to see you. Shall I send him in?"

"Hai, please do."

The large wooden doors to her office opened slightly, allowing Hibiki access to the room. "Konnichi wa madame principal," Amawa opened as he came in, "I assume you are doing well?"

"Hai, arigato Amawa-sama. Please, make yourself comfortable, my vice-principal should be here shortly."

"Domo arigato madame principal. I believe I will," Hibiki said as he plopped himself down on the couch in front of the principal's desk.

Fortunately, they didn't have to wait long for the vice-principal to show. "Ah," Cheiko said to Hibiki, "here he is now."

Hibiki turned around, slightly shocked to learn that the new vice-principal was a man, but his face faulted when he actually saw who it was. A tall man with short black hair came striding into the room. "Ah, Amawa-sama," the principal spoke as her new vice-principal took his place next to her, "I believe you know my vice-principal Tokugawa Yoshio?"

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Well, that's it for Chap. 3. Hope you liked it! Oh, and for those of you who wanted Fuko and Hibiki to meet, that's not until later. Please review, I like to know what I can improve upon. Ciao for now!  



	4. Chapter 4

Hello again everyone. Long time no see. Just too prove I'm not dead and still care about this story, I give you (drum roll) _Ten Years Later_, chap. 4, I hope you enjoy it.

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Chapter 4  
Five o' clock came and went. Ruru was sitting in the dining room of Gochiso, waiting for her tenants to return. "Taidama, Ba-chan," a voice called from the hall. 

"O-kaeri nasai kiddo," Ruru replied as Amawa came through the sliding door, positively beaming. "I assume everything went well at the interview?"

"That it did, Ba-chan, that it did. You are now looking at the new physical education kyoshi of Seitow Sannomiya Private School, and thankfully I didn't have to dress up this time. They still made hold a mock class, but," his hand moved towards his back pocket and produced an envelope, "they gave me an advance on my salary this time."

Ba-chan looked like she was about to have a heart attack, "How did you manage to pull that off?"

"Simple, I asked. That and the new vice-principal practically made the principal give it to me."

Ruru chuckled at the last pronouncement. "I should have known. Vice-principal Tokugawa was forcibly placed upon that old fossil by the Director to make sure she stayed in line. Even if you hadn't asked for an advance, he'd have made sure you got one."

_So_, Hibiki mused to himself, _I guess that makes me the first willingly hired male kyoshi in over twenty years_.

Hibiki was brought out of his musings when a vaguely familiar feminine voice called from the hallway, "Taidama Ba-chan."

"You never told me you took another tenant, let alone a female one," Hibiki said under his breath.

"You never asked, now did ya kiddo?" Ruru shot back, playful gleam back in her old eyes. "Konban-wa Kuzuha-san," Ruru directed this greeting to the new figure in the sliding doorway.

"Hai, konban-wa Ba-cha…" Fuko stopped in the doorway of the living room, her voice trailing as she saw Amawa. Silence pervaded the room for a few seconds before she fainted, crumpling to the floor…

Kuzuha awoke to the sound of indiscernible muttering from the far side of the room. She tried to get up to get a slightly better look at her surroundings when a sharp pain raced through the back of her skull. She laid back on her futon heavily. "At last," came a wizened voice from the by the window, "our sleeping beauty awakes."

"How long was I out for?" Kuzuha asked to no one in particular.

"Let's see," this new voice sounded closer and sent chills down her spine. She hoped that it wasn't **his** voice, but merely a doppelganger's, "You were out for nearly four hours, not too much to worry about." The owner of the voice looked down from above her after saying this, revealing the features of one Amawa Hibiki back-lighted by the ceiling lamp. He smiled at her, that same smile that made her heart melt those ten years ago every time she saw it.

"Sensei?" Kuzuha asked, becoming a bit overwhelmed in this situation.

"Yes Kuzuha?"

"I missed you," was all she managed before falling back into a dreamless sleep…

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Yes, yes, I know, this is probably the shortest chap. to date, but I wanted the meeting to be the focus of this chapter, so I couldn't really do much else. Still, I hope you enjoyed it anyway. I promise that chap. 5 will be out soon! Again, please R&R!  



	5. Chapter 5

Long time no see, sorry about that but I've been really busy latly. Anyway, a special thank you to Strawberry Eggs who is now my beta for this story. Hope you enjoy the chap.!

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Chapter 5 

The new day dawned bright and clear and Hibiki was up with the sun. Waking early was a habit he had picked up during his first teaching stint ten years ago, back when it took him awhile to get properly dressed since he was pretending to be a woman at the time. He now didn't really need to wake up this early, but it gave him a chance to think by himself before the craziness of the day took control.

Today's subject of thought, not surprisingly, was Kuzuha. While he had suspected that he might run into her while staying in the district, he had never imagined that they would be teaching at the same school, much less living under the same roof. "My life just keeps throwing me curveballs, doesn't it?" he chuckled to himself…

Breakfast was interesting, to say the least. To say the most would be that utter silence pervaded the room and all attempts at conversation were squashed under the uncertainty in the room. Amawa and Kuzuha sat across from each other at the small table, Kuzuha staring into her rice bowl, Hibiki wondering what to say to break the ice. Ba-chan, being the ever considerate hostess that she is, simply stated, "Ya know, I'd hate to be a tenant who can't pay the rent because they got fired from their newly acquired jobs, now would I?" Needless to say, this statement had all three tenants up and out in less than thirty seconds. "Idiots," she sighed, "I'd never kill them, I need their money…"

Tomorrow would be the beginning of a new school year at Seitow and Hibiki could not have been more unprepared for it. Hurriedly he ran around the teacher's lounge, throwing paper up in the air, searching through trash bins, and overturning rugs merely to find his role book. "Um, sensei?" Kuzuha said from the side of the room, "The role's all done by computer now."

Hibiki ceased his frantic search in light of Kuzuha's revelation. "Domo arigato, Kuzuha-san. I never would have thought about looking there for it," he smiled sheepishly. Kuzuha merely giggled, which made Hibiki feel several different things at once. _Why have I not been able to get that smile out of my head?_ he thought silently to himself. _She may never have really left my mind in all these years, but how do I know if she feels the same about me. Besides, she's probably already found someone else by now, _he smiled sadly at his last thought, hoping against hope that it wasn't true…

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Sorry the chap. are so short, I really don't like them to be that way. Anyway, hope you liked it and please R&R!  



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